“I told them ‘You can’t take my arm off, I work, I go to the gym five times a week, I go swimming and fishing.’

"They told me they would have to cut out part of my arm and I would left with a really big scar, but it was either that or lose my arm.”

After the affected flesh had been removed, Gary had a skin graft taken from his leg to cover the gaping wound and was left with a permanent scar.

He was off work recovering for seven months.

“Ironically, before I was bitten by the spider, I lived in Australia for six months and saw huntsman spiders, red widows, swam with crocodiles and sharks and never had anything bad happen to me,” he told the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette .

“But I come back home and I’m bitten by a spider in my back garden and all of this happens to me.”

Injuries: Painful mark on Gary Meadows (Image: Ian Mcintyre)

The false widow - steatoda nobilis - arrived in Britain in a bunch of bananas from the Canaries 142 years ago and there has been a rapid rise in numbers in recent years.

Its bite is usually no worse than a bee sting, but, in some people, the venom can cause the flesh to rot.

Gary, who works as a carer at Primrose Court Nursing Home and lives at Westbourne Grove, has seen his life altered forever by the little insect.

But he refuses to let it get him down.

“I don’t think about it too much,” he said. “If it’s going to happen it’s going to happen, I can’t stay inside for the rest of my life.”